Seedlings to Adults

Raising children is hard. Period. End of story. Raising a child with a medical condition is really hard, but not the end of the story.

Many parents go to sleep at night and wake up each morning wondering just how we can take our precious babies from childhood, into an adulthood where they might not just grow and live, but truly thrive. This has also been a hot button topic in the medical world as we seek to not simply care for our pediatric patients as they are, but also as they might become.

Positive Youth Development is a framework that has grown over the last few decades that just might give us some insight into how we can grow our little seedlings into strong, healthy, adult trees. This childhood to adult transition means far more than just reaching the legal age of 18. It also means that they are not only able to care for themselves, but also for others, in some situations. Back in the 90s, a process was developed to improve the resiliency of our youth.

Resilience means, not only experiencing adversity, but also be deemed as doing well or okay.

This process was eventually molded into the Positive Youth Development (PYD) model. This model helps us reframe our mindset from managing the negatives of young people to focus on building positive skills that help reach their maximum potential as adults. This process starts as early as the age of 10 years old and continues until they are as old as 26. One psychologist describes this as someone who can “promote their lives and pursue happiness and fulfillment through their own decisions”. PYD can be summarized in the 5 Cs Model.

Two other Cs have recently been added. They are community and contribution. Both of which have developed out of learning the first 5 Cs.

I particularly like the mindset of these Cs as a shift away from “doing” and more of a focus on “being. The goal of creating young people who have these character traits by “being” competent, caring, etc. sets them up for a future of “doing” good. It lays the foundation for all situations that they may confront in life and gives them the tools to succeed.

In our NF programs, especially in Totally TEEN, we use the Positive Youth Development framework to develop all events. It is our hope that by providing individuals with competence through teaching life skills, confidence through positive reinforcement, good character through setting positive examples, connections to other young people who experience the same struggles, and showing compassion for their struggles, that we are able to achieve the last two Cs – building a community of young people with NF who are able to contribute not just to the NF community, but to the world around them.

-Makenzie Sledd, MPT